Humans
We’re homing in on the best ways to tackle misinformation
Comment
This week's magazine
19 October 2024
Issue 3513
On the cover
Editor's picks
Table of contents
快猫短视频
Environment
Once we pass 1.5掳C of global warming, there is no going back
We might not be able to cool the world down again after overshooting the 1.5掳C warming limit 鈥� and even if we can, a lot of irreversible damage will have been done
News
Health
Weight-loss drugs lower impulse to eat 鈥� and perhaps to exercise too
News
Health
Hospital hit by Hurricane Milton gets system to grab water from air
News
Physics
Tiniest ‘ruler’ ever measures distances as small as an atom’s width
News
Life
Living microbes found deep inside 2-billion-year-old rock
News
Technology
Hackers can turn your smartphone into an eavesdropping device
News
Mind
Your brain has individual neurons that respond to the smell of bananas
News
Physics
This test could reveal whether gravity is subject to quantum weirdness
News
Health
Your toothbrush is teeming with hundreds of types of viruses
News
Health
France slashed bird flu outbreaks by vaccinating ducks
News
Health
The US is ramping up bird flu surveillance 鈥� but will it be enough?
News
Technology
Microscopic gears powered by light could be used to make tiny machines
News
Physics
Certain quantum systems may be able to defy entropy’s effects forever
News
Technology
AIs can work together in much larger groups than humans ever could
News
Mind
Hot sauce taste test reveals how expectations shape pleasure and pain
News
Health
Slowing growth in life expectancy means few people will live to 100
News
Analysis
Technology
Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybercab is a hollow promise of a robotaxi future
Autonomous taxis are already operating on US streets, while Elon Musk has spent years promising a self-driving car and failing to deliver. The newly announced Tesla Cybercab is unlikely to change that
News
Technology
Do the 2024 Nobel prizes show that AI is the future of science?
News
Features
Mind
The free-energy principle: Can one idea explain why everything exists?
What life is and how the mind works fall within the compass of one bold concept. But critics say that by attempting to explain everything, it may end up explaining nothing
Features
Humans
The archaeologist fighting claims about an advanced lost civilisation
Features
Mind
Why frenemies, or love-hate relationships, are so bad for your health
Features
Culture
Mind
Separating the “woo” from the work of manifesting in two new books
Neurosurgeon James Doty and neuroscientist Sabina Brennan ask if there is any real science in manifesting in their new books
Culture
Environment
Bestselling graphic novel is a whistlestop tour of the climate crisis
Culture
Space
快猫短视频 recommends Brian Cox’s new series, Solar System
Culture
Space
Understated sci-fi drama traverses themes of immigration and identity
Culture
More
Society
Readers deserve better from popular science books
There is a dirty secret in publishing: most popular science books aren't fact-checked. This needs to change, says Michael Marshall
Comment
Space
What does it mean to 鈥渓ook鈥� at a black hole?
Comment
Mathematics
How the maths of queuing can make lines more efficient
Regulars
Tom Gauld: Congratulations on your successful experiment!
Regulars
Twisteddoodles on a secret technical handshake
Regulars
Regulars
Can rain help a “human head” survive a lightning strike? Possibly
Feedback is intrigued by a study that uses rain and a "realistic three-compartment human head phantom" to explore the effects of a direct hit from lightning
This Week鈥檚 Letters
Letters
Did abstract mathematics exist before the big bang? Part 2
Last Word
Could an advanced civilisation develop without the wheel?
Last Word
This week鈥檚 new questions
Last Word
